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I'm talking about poverty here.

How do some people end up (and sometimes, stay) penniless?

It depends on who you're talking about. Some spend too much money, others are lazy and don't work. Others complain about how they deserve money, but show no interest in trying to earn any.

It really depends on the person and the scenario.

My experience in life as taught me that the vast majority of "poor" people are poor simply because they won't put in the extra effort required to get them out of thier hole.

Good question. And I can answer it from personal experience. 7 months ago I was laid off from a company because of a fued I was having with a family member higher up in the company. I went on unemployment which literally cut my income in less than half. Having a car payment, car insurance, gas and food to pay for it has hit me hard and generally drained my account on a monthly basis. I'm educated in a field (mechanical engineering) where an employer is looking for a degreed individual or someone with 5+ years of experience. I have neither being that I did not go to college and I'm only 21 years old. So while I have still contacted many engineering firms I have been turned down by all of them due to lack of experience. This has forced me to try acquiring a job in other fields where I have zero experience.. From assembly work to a Gamestop employee. No one is willing to hire a person though when they have no prior experience. Now I am out of unemployment compensation, Tax season is coming up and I have $80 in my bank account. The only reason I'm not out in the street is because my parents still allow me to live with them.

So anyone saying it's because of pure laziness is full of shit. Training yourself in a field that now doesn't even accept you really hurts I must say. Not in an emotional sense but the fact that outside of engineering I know practically nothing. And no one wants to hire someone who knows nothing about what they do. Would you believe I'm so desperate for work that I applied for a janitorial position at the local high school? They said no because I had never worked in a position like that.

having just gotten over a bad period with money and jobs, I kinda agree with Zuko, but you do have some people who are just lazy as well, there's a whole horde of reasons to be poor, laziness, getting screwed by a job, etc.. not just one reason.

Zuko wrote:So anyone saying it's because of pure laziness is full of shit. Training yourself in a field that now doesn't even accept you really hurts I must say. Not in an emotional sense but the fact that outside of engineering I know practically nothing. And no one wants to hire someone who knows nothing about what they do. Would you believe I'm so desperate for work that I applied for a janitorial position at the local high school? They said no because I had never worked in a position like that.

Yeah, I'm kind of in a similar boat. It's not laziness or lack of motivation on my part, but a situation where I couldn't afford to finish college. I never had a job in high school because I didn't have the time or the need, so I have no experience and no degree. No one around here will hire me because of that.

Fortunately, I do have my skills as a writer to rely on, so I have a chance to sell stories I'm working on after they're finished. Even then, however, I'll be lucky to earn a decent living that way, and until then, all I can do is write and hope my luck changes, and be grateful my family will help me out financially.

"Why do people get poor?" in terms of individuals who begin from the same class background as most people likely to populate this board can indeed come from laziness, bad decision making, or overspending. It can also come from bad circumstances without a safety net.

Poverty in groups comes from structural economics which systematically leaves people out of the loop and offers very little chance for advancement. We had more poverty during the depression; were people just lazier then? Many people in poverty work longer and harder than you or I ever will. Beyond conscious discrimination of any kind, the expectations of any good-paying job require many aspects of background and habituation that a middle-class person will have as a matter of course.

The great American myth is predicated on the belief that anyone who works hard and thinks smart can get ahead. Well, it's true that McDonald's employee has more chance of becoming a millionaire here than a medieval serf had of becoming king, but it's not true that economic status is based solely or even primarily on merit. Poverty at large is a function of economic factors bigger than the character of the individuals in it.

because them buy lots of toys

Because we live in a democratic, capitalistic country.

Given the fact that we are not founded on an economy that follows communism, we do not all make the same amount of money and, hence, by comparision, there are those who make so less amounts of money as others that they are considered to be within the poverty realm.

It is true that there are those who are lazy or who do not care to get out of the poverty level, but that is not the cause of their poverty, but an effect of their poverty. It is only by a slight chance that those who are born and are raised in a family that is already in the poverty level will have the dreams, drive, and opportunities to raise themselves out of it.